The Tale of a Gryffindor and a Slytherin
by Moonglow13
Summary: Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy, best enemies, right? Or have they developed feel- Rated PG-13 (Now known as T for Teen) for language. At the moment anyway...
1. The Weasley Malfoy Feud

**A/N**: I did a little bit of editing…

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**Chapter 1: The Weasly-Malfoy Feud**

Ginny meandered down the corridor towards the Fat Lady, enjoying the fact she was back at Hogwarts. As much as she loved the cozy little Burrow, by the end of the summer her mother's constant "Ginevra, why don't you" 's and "Ginny have you tried?" 's were driving her up a wall. No, she didn't really want to do the dishes (not that she had a choice), especially since she wasn't allowed to use magic out of school, nor did she want her mother's fashion tips that ended with "That'll get the boys to notice you dear!" and a wink, as her fashion sense was twenty years out of date at least, and even in her hayday, Mrs. Weasley hadn't been much of a dresser. Ginny preferred to stick to the simple things she liked and knew, her comfortable if slightly large (what else was to be expected from her brothers' hand-me-downs?) sweater and jeans as opposed to the tight skimpy outfits she saw most girls her age wearing. She had a great figure- a nice sized bust, slender waist and hips that were not too large and not to small and silky brilliantly red hair which flowed down her back. She was in no hurry, however to show these things off. She didn't have anyone to impress and wasn't interested that kind of attention anyway. She preferred to concentrate on her studies and if the right guy who would like her for reasons other than her looks (and could get past Ron) happened to fall into her lap, she wouldn't say no.

Her dad wasn't much better. However, instead of ordering her around or trying to tell her how to dress, he always seemed to be explaining some new Muggles artifact he'd acquired. When she was younger, he'd cut down his explanations to the basics, just right for the short attention span of a child. Now that she was older, she got the full lecture. He could go on for hours about a light bulb. The problem was he thought she was interested. But she wasn't. And she was too kind hearted to tell him so. She had seen his reaction when her older brother Percy had expressed his similar feelings. Her fathers face and fallen and flushed as he bumbled about saying "Oh... of-of course. Of course you're not. How silly of me." Then they had stopped talking until Percy had gotten his job at the ministry. Then it wasn't much more than small talk. She didn't want that to happen to her and her father's relationship.

Which was why the arrival of the school year was the perfect solution. She could escape her mother's incessant orders and suggestions and her fathers tiresome rambling with out any fights or hurt feelings. She cheerily said goodbye and hurried on the train with a huge sigh of relief. Two weeks later that feeling hadn't changed, especially with the practically daily owls from home.

Ginny reached the portrait. "Good evening dear! Password?" The Fat Lady asked pleasantly.

"Illuminare" Ginny replied. The painted swung back to reveal the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Ginny! We were just beginning to worry about you!" said an enthusiastic Colin Creevy, pointing to her brother who was immersed in his Transfiguration homework with his friends.

"Yeah, I'll bet!" She said jokingly sarcastic.

"Where have you been?" Creevy demanded.

"Oh, just wandering. Enjoying being here. Away from the Burrow," They laughed. She had told Colin of her treacherously long summer on the Hogwarts Express, making him feel guilty for declining her offer to stay the last week of vacation with her.

"I'm sorry!" He had said. "I wanted to, but my parents had booked that phoenix watching trip a year ago!" She tried to give him an angry look which quickly dissolved into laughter. It was hard to stay mad at him, between the elation of being back at Hogwarts and his sad little puppy face.

To most people, Colin seemed to be a pest, always asking questions and what not. Ginny often told him he should have taken up journalism instead of photography, but he was quite talented at it and intended to stick with just the picture taking. "Yeah, I'm good at the gathering the information part, but I can't write worth a bean!"

They had become friends in their first year. Colin had almost become the first person she had told of the Chamber of Secrets. He had badgered her endlessly about what was wrong with her- picking up emotions seemed to be another talent of his- and she would have given him the whole story had Harry not found her unconscious at Tom Riddle's mercy first.

"Well, you took so long wandering that we don't have a table any more." Colin said

"What do you mean? I thought you left early to get one!" Ginny replied, slightly annoyed, glancing around the room to see he was correct.

"I had one and some seventh years came by and said I was sitting at their table. And I wouldn't just want to accidentally take some ones table and they were so big!" Colin blathered. At 5'5", most people towered over Colin, even though he was a fifth year. Not a confrontational person to begin with, this didn't really help. 'Although,' though Ginny, 'I don't think he's really that short anymore.' Over the summer he appeared to have shot up a few inches and was now a little taller than her 5'7". His shoulders had broadened as well and his voice had stopped cracking. He now spoke in a rich deep tone. Ginny would have swooned if they weren't so close he was practically her brother or that she sometimes questioned his sexuality.

"Well, then I guess it's off to the library. Again" said Ginny. She grabbed her books and they left.

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They settled down at a table in the back of the second floor. Ginny rolled out a piece of parchment and grimaced as she opened her ratty hand-me-down edition of _The Art of Potions: For 5th years_. Gods she hated Snape with his greasy black hair and perpetual sneer, not to mention his particularly bad temper towards all Gryffindors. Although she was the best at potions in her class and some said possibly the whole Gryffindor Tower (much to Hermoine's annoyance) he didn't treat her any better. Of course it hadn't helped that he had some how overheard her remark to her partner Mariana Parks about how vile he was. He was half way across the room when she said it! It was just impossible that he'd heard her!

"Ah, well, perhaps I'll improve once you've written me a 3 foot long essay on the uses of Newt Flower Potions. Ten points from Gryffindor!" He'd said. Everyone had stared angrily at her. She was too busy thanking her lucky starts she hadn't gotten detention to even notice however.

Now that she had to write the essay however, she was feeling a little differently. She couldn't come up with a paragraph on Newt Flower Potions, let alone three feet of parchment! She rummaged through her supplies and pulled out a quill, but couldn't find her ink. "Damn! My ink's gone!" she said.

"I'd offer you some of mine," offered Colin "But I'm don't think I'll have enough to last until Hogsmeade as it is."

"It's ok Colin. I had plenty left…I just don't know what happened to it." She pondered for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "Ron! HE probably took it, bloody prat." She sighed. "I guess I'm off to the common room again."

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Ginny burst through the common room door and made a beeline towards Ron, Harry and Hermoine. 

"Ron, what did you do with my ink?" Ginny demanded.

"Geez, I couldn't find mine so I'm using yours. No need to get your panties in a bunch." Ron said irritated. "Hey Hermoine, can I share you're ink?" The girl nodded without looking up from her parchment. Ron handed the one he was using to Ginny. "Here."

"Then couldn't you have just used hers in the first place? And where's the stopper?" She spotted it on the floor, in Crookshanks' clutches. She did _not_ fancy going over there and prying it from him.

"Here, take Hermoine's for now and she'll get yours from Crookshanks later and give it to you, ok?" Ron said, following her gaze.

"Thanks," she replied and headed back to find Colin.

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The stopper didn't fit. Ginny tried pushing it down but it would only pop up again. If she carried it without the cork it would splash. So, she decided to use both thumbs to push cork down.

Suddenly, her foot snagged on an uneven stone and she pitched forward. She barely managed to keep a hold on the bottle as the ink went flying. She then hit some one with a loud "Oof".

Regaining her balance, Ginny looked to see who had stopped her from what could have been a painful meeting with the floor. Her breath caught in her throat and she saw and extremely angry Malfoy.

"Gods Weaslette, first you spill half a bottle of ink on me then you throw your self into my arms. I don't know which is more pathetic, you wasting half your father's pay-worth of ink, or your embarrassing crush on me," Malfoy drawled, ink dripping down his silk black tee and robes, glaring daggers at Ginny. She flustered and tried to speak, but nothing came out.

"What's the matter Weasley, too embarrassed or too stupid to come up with a retort?" He said shaking his head in mock pity. "For shame! Even your idiot brother can do better than that!"

Ginny felt bile rise in her throat. The next thing she knew, her fist was making contact with Malfoy's flawless porcelain skin, his silver eyes wide in shock. "And that's why prats like you should never leave the common room with out Dumb and Dumber." retorted Ginny, referring to Malfoy's henchmen Crabbe and Goyle, who seemed to shadow Malfoy every where he went. He was now standing with one hand on his cheek. Replacing his familiar sneer (practiced to perfection in the mirror) Malfoy tried to punch her back. Ginny ducked and he gritted his teeth in pain as his fist hit the wall hard.

"Gee, Malfoy. Hitting a girl. That's low even for you! I'm impressed," she said voice dripping with false admiration. 'Damn!' Malfoy thought 'I forgot she has six brothers," He looked up at her as she laughed at him. He chocolate brown eyes were smiling cruelly as her fair freckled face sneered at him, beautiful fiery hair falling slightly over her shoulder. Malfoy's eyes continued to travel down Ginny, noticing her nice curves and long legs, although it would have been hard to tell she had any from afar, with all those loose clothes. 'If she weren't a Weasly, she'd be pretty. Not to mention a good candidate for Slytherin with that sneer,' He thought.

Malfoy whipped out his wand. "Ricta Sempra!" he shouted. Ginny flew backwards, landing just short of the far wall. He walked to where she lay and leaned over her. "I don't hit girls. But then you're not really a girl are you? You certainly don't dress as one." He straightened up again. "I think you and I have both learned important lessons. You've learned that I don't need 'Dumb and Dumber', as you so put it, to best you. And I learned to stick with using magic as opposed to physical violence. I'll leave that to you Gryffindor Neanderthals with too much pride and now where to put it." He left her there on the floor and headed back to the common room to go change his outfit.

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A/N 2: Did you like it? Did you hate it? What should I fix? Please review and tell me. Criticism is welcome, but no flames please!

- Moonglow


	2. Lost in Thoughts

A/N: Enjoy ….

Disclaimer: I DO own it! J.K Rowling is just a cover story! Yeah…right….

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**Chapter 2: Lost in Thoughts**

Ginny watched Malfoy's receding figure through a veil of pain, doing her best to stare daggers at him. She had never hated some one as much before as she did him at this moment Just a few seconds ago (though it seemed to have been a hell of a lot longer than that) she had felt triumphant. Now she lay sprawled on the floor as listening to Malfoy call her a Neanderthal. She definitely preferred the former. 'Next time HE'LL be the one lying on the ground in pain watching me walk away' she thought, gritting her teeth in pain as she tried to stand up.

She was finally on her feet. Her head was pounding as if she'd been hit by a bludger repeatedly. She desperately needed a trip to the hospital wing. She began to walk and cursed as she stepped on the broken shards that had once been her ink bottle. It had been her last bottle. Malfoy had been right about one thing, she didn't have enough money to afford another. She's have to borrow some of Ron's. She took out her wand from her robes and repaired the bottle so at least she had something to put the ink in (sharing ink with Ron would be hard enough, never mind sharing a bottle). She then used another spell to clean up the mess caused by the splattering ink. That last thing she – or anyone for that matter- needed was an angry Filch. If one got caught rule breaking while he was in a bad mood, there was a good chance he might try to break out the thumb screws instead of just issuing a detention, which was usually painful enough (depending on with whom it was served).

It seemed to take Ginny forever to reach the hospital wing, her head punding the way it was. "My goodness! What happened to you?" Madame Pomfrey exclaimed rushing over to Ginny as she walked through the door. Ginny looked down at her self to see what had prompted such a reaction from the normally stoic nurse. Her robes were in disarray and her favorite green shirt was stained with blood. She didn't even need a mirror to know her face, probably scraped and bruised, didn't look much better. Although, with the exception of her fantastic headache, she didn't feel too bad, she figured she must look a mess. Probably, in fact, quite how Ron looked after he tried to prove to the twins that wizards don't need brooms to fly by jumping out of their second story window. It had been a nasty sight with splintered bones protruding through his flesh and blood everywhere. 'Alright,' she thought. 'maybe not THAT bad but it's probably not pretty'

Madame Pomfrey's eyes narrowed as she examined Ginny. "I hope this isn't the outcome of another Weasly- Malfoy brawl," she demanded, looking her up and down suspiciously.

"No, I…er…fell down some stairs," Ginny lied. "One of the staircases by the Gryffindor tower. Lucky not to break my neck really!" She gave a weak smile.

"Alright…" Madame Promfrey said, still eyeing her. Despite Ginny's reassurance, the nurse had seen the outcome of one too many fights between the feuding families to truly believe her story. 'The number of times one of those two boys has come in all bloodied up with an excuse like "I fell off my broom" or "I slipped in the shower"…' She shook her head slightly aggravated at the thought. After a couple of long detentions, Ron and Malfoy had wizened up. In a silent agreement, it was decided that the one who came out worse off would go to Madame Pomfrey while the other would heal himself.

However she could almost always guess the cause of the various injuries. 'Still, there's nothing that can be done if one of them doesn't come out and admit it.' she thought. With a sigh, she showed Ginny to a bed, gave her something for the headache and began healing her cuts and bruises.

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Malfoy stared in the mirror with disgust. His normally handsome face was marred by the swelling in his left cheek where Ginny had punched him. 'She's strong for a little Weaslette' he thought to himself. He would have gone to the hospital wing, but it had looked like the Weasly girl needed it more than he. He replayed the image of her flying across the hallway and landing hard on the floor. He gave a smirk which quickly turned into a grimace of pain.

After a half hour of trying, it became clear that he wouldn't be able to completely heal himself on his own without some supplies from the hospital wing. He would have to wait until midnight, after Madam Pomfrey turned in, so he could slip in and get what he needed. He decided to try and get some work done in the mean time.

However, he found it hard to concentrate on his Potions homework The face of Ginerva Weasly kept popping up in his mind. That sneer, his sneer really, plastered all over her face as she ridiculed him. And he had lost his calm, icy composure and actually tried to hit her. Draco Malfoy never HIT anybody. He'd jinx them to hell and back but physical violence was beneath him. Before he knew it, the clock struck midnight. Draco grabbed his cloak and left, his work untouched.

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It hadn't taken Madame Pomfrey long to heal Ginny. She wasn't as badly injured as she had originally thought. A deep cut on the base of her neck and a bump on the back of her head were the worst of it. As she looked over her shirt, she saw it was nothing a few simple charms couldn't fix.

Madame Pomfrey had wanted her to stay the night just incase the bump had been a bit more than a bump, and had ordered her not to fall asleep. Which was fine with Ginny as she couldn't have fallen asleep if she tried. She could still hear Malfoy's disgusting drawl ringing in her head. _'Gods Weaslette, first you spill half a bottle of ink on me then you throw your self into my arms. I don't know which is more pathetic, you wasting half your father's pay- worth of ink, or your embarrassing crush on me'_ Her face grew red, making her freckles stand out, and her eyes glowed with anger. Who did he think he was, making fun of her father like that! And having a crush on him? She'd rather kill herself than ever fall in love with a slimy git like him. 'He may have gorgeous blonde hair, those sexy blue eyes, a strong handsome nose and chiseled lips, not to mention a bod to die for,' Ginny stopped herself midthought, shocked that she had even noticed good that _vile wretch_ looked. 'Not that his good looks can compensate for what an ass he is!' Ginny continued, feeling relieved as she got back on track, not even noticing as the clock struck eleven.

'He's a heartless, cruel, miserable excuse for a human being, with no consideration for anyone but himself. The way he uses that girl Pansy Parkinson who, dopey as she is, really seems to care for him. Or how he treats me and my family as if we are the lowest form of scum on earth when all we are is humane. There is no reason anyone needs to kill Muggles! So what if they can't do magic? Why should it matter? You sure don't see anyone killing squibs! And who cares about money? I may not have all the riches Malfoy has but at least I'm happy' Ginny smiled wickedly as the realization dawned on her that Malfoy was probably not a happy person. 'How could he be, evil as he is? Especially when his parents are even worse than he is…' she laughed. On any other night, she might have felt a fleeting feeling of sympathy, but as she lay in the hospital bed (put there by the person in question) all she could do was smirk.

She had passed three hours in the infirmary all together, lost in her thoughts, when the clock struck twelve. Pulled from her thoughts by the chimes, she decided to try and get some homework done (brought by Colin who had heard that she had been seen going to the infirmary looking pretty beat up. Madame Pomfrey had said she would give Ginny her books, but now wasn't good time to see her. She was right of course, and Colin had gone back to Gryffindor). After all, if she was given a clean bill of health, she'd hae to go to classes and it wouldn't do to not have her homework. Taking her books and the bottle of ink Colin had so graciously left for her onto the bed, she started the potions essay. Not ten minutes into it, she was startled by the sound of the infirmary's door opening. She frowned, knowing it couldn't be Madame Pomfrey who was fast asleep.

Quietly, she got out of bed, taking her wand out of the draw beside her and hid behind the curtain separating the ward from the rest of the hospital. She watched a shadowy figure move noiselessly through the darkness and towards Madam Pomfrey's herbs. As the figure began to rummage through them, she jumped from behind the curtain and said "Petrificus totalis!" The figure fell to the ground with a loud thunk. Ginny heard Madame Pomfrey stir in her sleep (her room was attached to the hospital wing) and say something about not wanting to bake a batch of jelly doughnuts. Ginny walked over to the fallen body and looked in the petrified eyes of a very surprised Malfoy.

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A/N2: I hope you enjoyed it! More soon …and remember, the more reviews I get, the faster I update! Tell me what I'm doing right or wrong. I can't fix anything if nobody tells me whats wrong. (good reviews just make me update faster ;P) Thanks to:

**Princess:** I'm flattered! blushes. I'm glad you liked it so much.

**Xani:** I made sure to update quick just for you. I hope you liked this chapter as much as the last one!

See y'all next chapter! (and more Malfoy next time, I promise!)

- Moonglow


	3. In the Slytherin Tunnels

Disclaimer: Checks watch Nope, still don't own them. Though I do have a nice watch…

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**Chapter 3: In the Slytherin Tunnels…**

"Petrificus Totalis!" Draco spun around as the words echoed through the room, only to be hit with a petrifying spell. As his body turned rigid, and began to topple over, he caught a glimpse of red hair. 'Weasley!' His anger flared but before he could spurt so much as an insult, everything went black.

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As Ginny saw the intruder's face, she knew her Malfoy situation had just gone from bad to worse. Knowing that leaving him where he was would cause too many complications, she lifted the upper half of his body and dragged him through the slightly open door.

Lucky for Ginny the Gryffindor quidditch team had a rigorous work out at the end of each of practice for dragging the obnoxious blonde's dead weight was not an easy task. She couldn't help noticing what a nice, toned, muscular body her arch-nemesis had. Shaking her head violently to rid herself of such thoughts, she admonished 'He's scum. Scum! Amazingly good smelling scum…' Ginny decided it would be best if she stopped thinking all together.

She reached the stairs and was hit with a plan. She was glad to be done wandering aimlessly through the night. Her arms were getting tired. Checking carefully for signs of Filch or his evil cat Mrs. Norris (she'd managed to avoid getting detention due to Malfoy so far and had no desire to break her streak now) she dragged the unconscious boy down the stairs with a series of loud thumps. Ginny silently wished she were holding him by the feet instead of the shoulders. Maybe bumping down thirty some odd stairs would do his brain some good. Maybe even make him a normal person. Ginny couldn't help laughing at the thought. 'The day Malfoy acts like a normal human being will be the day I fall in love with him. In other words, it's impossible!'

She finally reached an empty classroom and lugged Malfoy to the center of the room between two rows of desks. She then left the room, closing the door behind her. She peered through the tall rectangular window in the door, pointed her wand at Malfoy's prone figure, and whispered the counter curse. Then she was off. She had no desire to stay and see Malfoy in a rage. Making sure not to go back to the infirmary, which would be the first place he'd looked for her, Ginny let her feet carry her in any direction they wanted.

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Draco woke up feeling worse off than when he decided he'd needed the infirmary in the first place. He looked around, confused. Yes, that's where he'd been, the infirmary. 'Well, I'm definitely not there now,' he thought. He looked to be in an empty classroom. But how could he possibly have gotten there? The last thing he could remember was…being Petrified by the Weaslette. That explained a lot. 'She probably realized what she'd done, hid me here so she could run away before I woke up. Somebody's scared of me…' He smiled to himself. 'Then again, if I were in her place, I would be too,' The smile changed into his patented smirk. He got to his feet with some trouble. They were oddly sore.

His smirk was replaced with a frown. His day had progressively gone from horrible to unmentionable. Ever since Pansy Parkinson had broken the news that he was the love of her life, things had gotten worse and worse. Just when he thought it wasn't possible to go anymore downhill that it already was, there he was sitting in a classroom that hadn't been dusted in what seemed like years, coming out on the worse end for second time in a meeting with the youngest Weasley. The face-fixing and revenge-plotting would have to wait until morning. All Draco needed right now was a good night's sleep to put this mess behind him. Tomorrow he would start as if nothing had ever happened and be his normal obnoxious self. With a quick dusting off of his clothes, the Slytherin Prince headed out the door.

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The Weasley in question was finding her self to be very lost. 'I knew I should have paid attention to where I was going!' she mentally berated herself. Looking around at winding hall stretching off in the distance, it seemed that she was in the dungeons. A very bad place to be as a Gryffindor to start with, but an even worse place to be when a most likely raging Malfoy was searching for her. 'I could have sworn that I was up on the third floor not that long ago. And I don't recall going down any steps…' She grimaced. She turned around and began to retrace her foot steps. A big mistake.

Malfoy yawned and shuffled down the hallway. All he could think about was how nice his king sized bed (the one he had made from Crabbe's bed and his with a simple melding spell. Crabbe had always liked the floor better any way.) sounded right about now. 'I could sleep for a bloody century if they'd let me.' He rubbed his eyes as he rounded the corner. Some one brushed his shoulder and let out a high pitch squeak. Spinning around, he saw before her none other than the foul red head who had made the past twelve hours a misery.

All thoughts of his hibernation plans forgotten, Malfoy approached the girl and growled "You!" She took an involuntary step back against the wall. "Why can't you manage to stay the bloody hell out of my way you filthy muggle lover?" Still advancing he continued venting his anger. "As if my day hadn't been bad enough, I sneak in to the infirmary to get some supplies to heal this," he pointed to his still puffy cheek " and you knock me out. You couldn't just let me get the better of you and leave me the hell alone? No! You had to drag me to some god forsaken wing of the school so I'd have trouble finding my way back. Then you wait for me down here? What is your problem Weasley!"

Ginny's face had gone from surprise to fear to shock in a matter of seconds before adopting the cool, bored look that so often graced Draco's striking features. Just because she actually was scared didn't mean she was going to let him know it. It took her a moment to realize that Malfoy was waiting for her response. She then gave him a big smile. "Malfoy! How nice to see you again! And I didn't mean to petrify you, I just didn't realize who the dark figure breaking into the infirmary in the middle of the night was. With the Dark Lord running loose and all, you can never be sure these days. And besides, I didn't really think of you as the sneaking around type. I know how you just love the lime light!" she rambled in the most sickeningly sweet voice she could manage.

Draco had managed to calm himself enough to replace his usual blasé mask. " Ah, so what you're saying is as you ran from me, you managed to get yourself lost in the snake den," he drawled, drawing his own conclusions. Ginny's face flushed.

"No, that's not what happened-"

"You know, it's very dangerous for a little Gryffindor such as yourself, Weaslette, to let yourself get lost in the dungeons where the Big- Bad- Snakes play," Draco took a step forward with each word until his faces was inches from hers. "Some body might get hurt," Ginny shivered at the dangerous tone in his voice. As she went to slip to the side of him, powerful, black clad arms shot out to either side of her, pinning her in place.

"Uh uh uh! No running away yet. Didn't your slovenly mother even _try_ to teach you manners?" His eyes bore into her "Its not nice to run away while some one is trying to speak to you," Noticing her shaking hands he grinned. "Scared are we, Weaslette? You should be." He leaned in and dropped his voice to a whisper. "Your idiotic brother and his mud blood girlfriend won't be able to save you this time. Nor will your precious Saint Potter. They don't even know you're here. Its just you and me. Alone,"

Ginny regained some confidence and retorted "I can take care of myself just fine, as your swollen cheek proves," He grabbed her shoulders and slammed her against the wall.

"That wasn't very nice. You know, it's a very bad idea to talk like that when you're not the one with the advantage," She swallowed hard. He let go of her but didn't move. "But getting back to my horrible day, while making _your_ life miserable would make _me_ feel better, I think I could get a lot more enjoyment out of beating you to a bloody pulp when you least expect it. I like suspense. It makes for good dramatics, don't you think?" In reality, he was simply too tired to go on much longer, as much as he enjoyed watching the Weaslette squirm. He leaned in closer "Don't you agree Ginevra?" She nodded, staring into his eyes. 'Gods is he gorgeous…' Her lips parted slightly as he eyed them. Her eyes became hooded as she felt his breathe on her cheek.

She shook her head and snapped out of it. "Uh… yeah …sure. Right. Suspense is better. Lovely too see you again. 'Bye." She began walking away, utterly bamboozled. Malfoy wasn't much better off.

"Go left at the end of this hall, and then take the third right. That will put you by Snape's dungeons," He said in an odd tone she had never heard before. Then again, all she knew was angry, malicious and his famed drawl. She quickened her pace hoping to forget this ever happened.

* * *

Draco continued down the hall toward his common room as if on auto pilot. What in Salazar Slytherin's name had just happened? One minute, he had the feisty red head right where he wanted her, the next… He refused to even think about it. 'She's the worst scum imaginable, trying to seduce me with those soft brown eyes and those red pouting lips! Who does she think she is? She could never be good enough for a Malfoy. Those filthy muggle lovers! Who had given those damn Weasleys permission to exist anyway. Once I'm a Death Eater, I'll make sure that every last one of them dies a slow and painful death! A Weasley trying to kiss a Malfoy! The gall!'

He stormed into the common room and was greeted by the bemused voice of Blaise Zabini. "Malfoy, you'd better watch where you rant and rave. One would think that you might be trying to cover feelings for a Weasley. Although, I must say, I never had you pegged as the gay type."

Malfoy jerked his head up, not expecting any one to be awake at this hour, let alone able to hear his thoughts…"You mean I was thinking out loud _again_?" He gave a sigh of disgust and collapsed next to Blaise. "Father keeps telling me I'll never make a good Death Eater if I can't control it. I'd be blabbing all the Dark Lord's plans all over the place." Blaise chuckled. Malfoy looked at him perturbed. "What? You know, its only another couple of months until we graduate. I'm guessing you're Mark won't be a long time coming either."

"It's just funny to hear you worry like an old lady." Blaise ducked as his best friend since the day he was s punched his arm. " What? You sort of look like so-" Draco cut him off, smacking a pillow in Blaise's face.

"Keep, that up and maybe you find yourself aged a couple decade by lunch tomorrow!" Blaise knew better than to mess with Draco's potion prowess. If he didn't have any aging potion left (1 teaspoon good for ten years, lasts an hour; good for using to sneak into the Hogs Head for a fire whiskey) Zabini knew he whip one up in a jiffy.

Settling down, Blaise got back on topic. "So, what were you saying about Weasley? I only caught parts of it- his soft brown eyes, and something about killing his family-"

"Her. Her family. I just had an encounter with the Weaslette. Tried to seduce me."

"Oh, and you don't WANT to be seduced by possibly the prettiest girl in sixth year?"

"She's a WEASLEY" Malfoy said with disgust.

"Nothing stopped you from sleeping with Pansy even though you thought SHE was the scum of the earth and an embarrassment to Slytherins everywhere," Blaise pointed out.

"That was different," Draco replied curtly.

"How so? And speaking of which what ARE you going to do about her? The last thing you want is her running home to mommy and daddy. Lucius won't be happy if Parkinsons decide to stop loaning him money,"

"I know, Zabini," He rubbed his face in frustration. "I know. And there is NOTHING with me and the Weaslette." He stood up and stretched. "I'm off to bed."

"I left the healing potion next to your bed," Zabini called.

"Thanks!" Draco called back.

* * *

Wearily, Ginny finally reached the Gryffindor tower. Not more than ten feet in front of her, she saw two people holding hands. A boy and a girl. They were whispering softly, too much so for Ginny to be able to hear what they were saying. They kissed briefly and the girl departed. Ginny approached quietly, hoping to catch a glimpse of who they were. Then the boy turned to her and said " I knew you were there the whole time, Ginny. Why do you think I was talking so low?"

"Colin? What are you doing?" Ginny asked, surprised.

"What are you doing out of the hospital wing? You look tired. Come, lets go into the common room"

'He doesn't sound like Colin,' she thought. 'Besides, my Colin wouldn't be sneaking around with some girl at night. He's too shy.' But upon getting closer, she saw it was indeed Colin Creevy. Once inside, he seemed to revert to his normal self.

"Man, Ginny I was so worried about you. When you didn't come back in twenty minutes I went looking for you, and I couldn't find you. So eventually I got around to the Hospital Wing and Madame Pomfrey said-" Colin noticed Ginny had totally zoned out. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. I'll see you tomorrow!" She said good night and watched him go upstairs. Then she sank down on the couch to think.

* * *

A/N: Wow, even I didn't expect some of those turns. And yey for my longest chapter ever. I hope you all enjoyed it and sorry it took so long to update! I'm gonna try to update more often but this whole junior year thing is tough. And yey for my second strait high honor roll!

**Kerichi:** I'm glad I got you to laugh! And I must say, I have no idea how you update so fast with such long chapters! It took me a month and mines only, what six pages? Bravo. I hope this one was as good as the last.

Well, until next time (when hopefully my story will become a bit lighter and more humorous)

- Moonglow


	4. We Meet Again

A/N: Last chapter, I appeared to have tried to edit something with out completely fixing it. What I mean to say was that Blaise and Malfoy had been friends for as long as either could remember. Right, so on to the next chapter! Stop wasting time reading my comments!

Disclaimer: Why do I bother with disclaimers? This is OBVIOUSLY not J.K Rowling's. Otherwise it wouldn't be fanfiction, right?

* * *

**Chapter 4: We Meet Again**

Ginny woke up with the worst neck ache since the time when she was five and Fred and George had bet her a galleon each the she couldn't stare at a single spot on the ceiling for two hours. A trick to get her to leave them alone or not, she won, and when they refused to pay up she and Bill had beat them up. That had actually been much more satisfying…. Back on topic, she in other words felt as if someone had taken a bludger to the back of her skull. She sat up, feeling disoriented. That blanket was _not_ her flower comforter and this was _definitely_ not her dorm. She back tracked through the previous night's events. This actually left her more confused than she had been to begin with, but at least allowed her to figure out where she was- on the couch of the Gryffindor common room.

Ginny set two goals for her week right then and there: 1. Figure out what in Godric Gryffindor's name had happened with her and Malfoy last night and 2. figure out who Colin's mystery lady was. Of course, that left a lot of sub questions to go under each heading which really made Ginny want to make a list, but upon glancing at the clock, she realized breakfast was already half over. A loud gurgle from her stomach confirmed it. The listing would have to wait until History of Magic 'Although that will cut down on my nap time," Ginny thought. She shrugged her shoulders and hurried upstairs to get changed, hoping they'd have those funny little car shaped waffles (apparently a whim of Dumbledore's. Needless to say the elves weren't to pleased about having to make a special one time change). She then headed to the Great Hall.

* * *

Upon arriving at the Great Hall, Draco completely lost his appetite. 'Word's got to have spread already about my fiasco last night. If I leave and hurry to Hogsmeade, I can probably catch the next train to Guam and wait there until things blow over. Its actually pretty nice there this time of year' He thought glumly. 

"There you go getting in the way again Malfoy. But then, I've come to expect no less from you…" Jumping twelve feet in the air and ready to do battle with the arrogant fool who dare speak to a Malfoy that way, he was a little disappointed to find Zabini staring at him, blue eyes dancing. Draco could have used a good duel right then, to take his mind off things for a while.

"You're lucky I'm not gay, cause otherwise I'd be telling you how sexy you look when you fume," Zabini flirted mockingly.

"Shut it Zabini. Your lucky I haven't _really_ taught you a lesson yet. By the way, I bet you are gay," Draco smirked.

Making his infamous puppy eyes (otherwise known as girl seducers) Blaise replied " Why do you always take your anger out on me? Just because you're afraid the stunning Ginevra Weas-" Blaise's angelic smile was quickly replaced by a devilish grin as Malfoy clapped his hand over the boy's mouth.

"Do not _say_ that name ever again! _Especially_ in any sort of sexual context! I hate the Weasley with every bone in my body and no matter how pretty she may be!" Draco flushed. He had definitely _not_ meant to say that last part. She wasn't pretty, she was hideous! 'If hideous meant gorgeous…' his conscious chimed in. He smacked his forehead, trying to silence that voice, cursing under his breathe.

"So, another victim has fallen to the foxy Gryffindor (Draco raised an eyebrow at Blaise's choice of words). Don't deny it- you look all hot and bothered," Blaise reached for the door and slipped inside before Draco had the chance to pummel him. He stood there fuming, trying to get his anger under control. 'Mention of that stupid girl should not be able to get me angry like this! I'm a MALFOY for Godsake! We barely even have feelings…' Draco chuckled in spite of himself. After a few more deep breathes he felt himself fit to present in public. Although he was determined the Weaslette's presence would in no way effect him, he couldn't help giving a sigh of relief upon finding her absent from the Gryffindor table.

* * *

Ginny had somehow managed to forget the fact that all the houses ate together, for she was unpleasantly surprised to see platinum blonde haired Slytherin sitting but two tables away from the empty spot Colin had saved for her. Deciding to avoid looking at the Slytherin table all together, she plopped down next to Colin and shifted so she couldn't anything past the Hufflepuff table. 

"Why didn't you wake me?" she asked the boy eagerly stuffing his face with eggs of many different varieties.

"You just looked so peaceful, and you had such a late night that I didn't want to wake you too early. Especially since we have potion first thing. A person's got to have there wits about them in that class if they plan on living to see lunch," He swallowed what he had been chewing (and therefore spraying all over Ginny). "Speaking of last night, where were you getting back from so late any way? Meeting a mystery lover under the moonlit trees?" Colin could be a bit of a hopeless romantic at times.

Ginny forced a smile. "Sure, if by 'man' you meant Malfoy and by 'meeting under moonlit trees' you meant being harrased in the labyrinth that are the tunnels of Slyherin…"

Colin put down his fork and begain to wave his hands around "Oooh! Did you beat him up again?"

"Alas, no. He scared the living daylights out of me and pinned me to the wall and then…" Ginny trailed off, not wanting to share the shameful ending with the biggest blabber mouth in sixth year (things like that Colin had trouble keeping to himself. Not to say he couldn't keep a secret of course, but better safe than sorry, no?). Besides should wouldn't know how to explain even if she DID want to share with him.

Colin wasn't about to be put off. "Then what?"

"Then I threatened him. So what was with you and YOUR mystery lady?" Ginny rushed to change the subject.

"Wow, Ginny you should try these oranges! They look amazing!" Colin acted as if he had heard her and grabbed an orange out from under his pile of eggs. He then took a huge bite of it and began to splutter. Apparently his so called orange turned out to be a lemon. His face twisted into some odd expressions as Ginny nearly fell off her chair laughing. He drank half a pitcher of milk before he finally calmed down. "The lemons are really sour too, if you're into that type of thing," This sent Ginny into another bout of giggles, Colin laughing with her this time.

"Normally I don't laugh at other people's pain but I just couldn't help myself. That was the stupidest thing you've done sice you wanted to know what nockwart tasted like and had a purple tongue for a week!" Ginny let her question slide. She wouldn't press him on it unless he brought up Malfoy again.

"Well, it smelled good, how could it possibly taste any different…"

"How DID it tastee?"

"Well, as soon as I put it in my mouth I could feel my tongue change color so I spat it back out before I could really taste it," Colin said a bit sheepishly.

"Wow, talk about a pain in the arse for nothing," Ginny teased. "You refused to eat in the Great Hall for a week!"

They continued to banter through out the meal. By the time the reached Potions, they were in thoroughly good moods, the morning's incident forgotten.

Malfoy decided it would be best if he let the lesson he owed Ginny slide. The girl was a foul seductress and he refused to have his image sullied to fulfill a stupid grudge. Of course, he couldn't let her think he'd forgotten. That could lead to her thinking him soft. Not that he cared what she thought, he reassured himself, but that last thing he wanted was for her to spread rumors. All she had to do was tell that big mouthed pipsqueak and the whole school would think they could just walk all over him. Plus it would make for a bad dark wizard image.

Although, these days Draco was feeling less and less inclined to becoming one of Voldemort's inner ring. Things were not going well for death eaters. After the battle with the Order of the Phoenix led by St. Potter, about half of those who weren't killed were caught and sent to Azkaban. Not only would that be bad for his complexion, Draco did not want to spend his life rotting away in a jail cell with some glorified Death Eater talking about the Good Old Days, before the Boy Who Lived took down Voldemort. Draco was third in his class, behind Know-It-All Granger and some Ravenclaw he wasn't familiar with. He had definite potential and no intention over throwing his life down the drain to please his father.

Speaking of his father, he had to figure out what to do with Pansy. Zabini had had a good point. His father would not like being cut off from the Parkinson fortunes because his son had hurt their daughter. While in the earlier part of his life, gambling had always worked out well for Lucius, he was finding it harder and harder to pick the winning broom and rigging things under the table was getting expensive. With loan sharks breathing down his back, he was in a tight spot. Luckily the Parkinsons still respected him enough from their days in the ranks to lend him the large sum he needed.

He was now skating on increasingly thin ice. The Parkinsons would only lend him so much and were becoming weary of the fact that he was digging himself a hole of debt he'd likely never get out of. They shook their heads. The new money wizards were always foolish. Apparently Lucius was no different.

After being employed in the Black firm (hey- wizards need lawyers too) hey met and fell in love with the owner's daughter, Narcissa. They were married and the prominent family helped him get the job he'd always wanted- a high paying desk job at the ministry. Draco wasn't quite sure what the elder Malfoy did, only that now he was pretty much just a figure head. Serving the Dark Lord tends to get one's privileges revoked as Lucius had found out the hard way. Of course, no one would dare fire some one so close to the Black family.

But just because Lucius was poor didn't mean Draco was. When his grand parents had died, they left a large trust in Draco's name. Draco had yet to be bitten by the gamblimg bug and spent his money wisely. This included not giving any to his father, no matter how much he loved him. One thing the young Malfoy had learned was that it didn't pay to help family unless it was truly a last resort. He liked his money the way it was- his.

Draco looked around him to find that the Great Hall was empty except for the Weaslette and the Pipsqueak. They left the room laughing about something or other as Draco gathered his things and headed for class.

* * *

Draco lurked outside of the potions dungeon. It was a lucky turn of events that Ginny was detained after class. She had sent her friends ahead of her as she finished bottling her potion. 

"I'm surprised you didn't manage to blow up your cauldron the way you were working today Ms. Weasley. I've never seen a student pay so little attention to what they're doing with out disastrous effects. I guess we'll find out tomorrow when we test the potions hm?" Snape said semi-menacingly. Ginny was, after all, the best potions student in her grade. She gathered he stuff and began walking out. "I expect better work from Weasley or I'll be taking points from Gryffindor," Ginny nodded not really paying attention to Snape.

Mystery Girl had been eating away at her the whole period. She had spent it narrowing down her options. She started with the all the girls with boyfriends. As there were surprisingly few this semester and she knew them all to be faithful, she could rule them out. All the Slytherin sixth years had already expressed their deep hatred Colin back in second year when he'd asked out Penelope Briggs. After laughing in his face, she the other girls had come up with a hex just for him, turning his face blue and warty and his hair to brown mottled feathers. His fingers had melthed together and his legs turned to jelly. As Ginny helped him to the hospital wing, she couldn't help but admire their ingenuity.

She had also eliminated all girls under fourth year (too young) and anyone in Gryffindor as Mystery Girl had left in the opposite direction of the Gryffindor tower. 'Heading up stairs or downstairs?' While pondering this question, she walked straight into the tall blonde in the middle of the corridor, not noticing him until they collided.

"Now, now, Weaslette," came the familiar drawl. "What have I told you about romantic interest in me? I know I'm good looking but it doesn't mean you should go throwing yourself at me," Ginny back away with a hiss. "You know I'm not interested in flashy sluts like you."

"Still mad about being rejected last night Malfoy? I'm sorry but I'll just have to be something you can't have. Imagine that! Some poor little Drakie can't have his father buy him. Awww," she mocked. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty classroom. Determined not to loose _another_ bottle of ink due to the evil prat, she whipped out her wand using momentus declines, letting it float down as her books clattered around it.

Ginny turned pointed the wand at Malfoy's head. "Let me go or loose the locks!" she threatened, banking on Malfoy's obsession with his hair.

"Feisty!" Malfoy grinned maliciously. He grabbed her free arm and squeezed. Her wand fell to the floor. " Fortunately, I'm just a _little_ bit stronger than you are," Proving his point his spun her into the darkness. Her thigh hit a desk, Malfoy's tight grip the only thing keeping her up.

"What is your problem?" she hissed. "Let go of me!"

"Shut it, Weaslette, before I decided to go harder on you than originally planned,"

"What are you going to do to me? Both your hands are tied up holding me still and physical violence is 'beneath you'. Not to mention your body guards are no where to be found," she said frankly.

"I don't need Crabbe and Goyle to take care of you," he sneered.

"Alright, you're big and macho. I cry out in fear. Please don't hurt me Malfoy!" She said mockingly. "There. I was terrified. Let me go. I'll stay out of your way and you stay out of mine!"

Malfoy was fed up. He let go of her arms, throwing them back at her. "Fine. But if you EVER give me so much as an impudent glare, you will pay," He threatened. The pale light coming from the doorway accentuated Ginny's pouting lips. He could feel her breath on his cheek. A few strands fell just over her shoulder, shining like rubies and complementing her flushed complexion. Without realizing what he was doing, he leaned in and captured her lips with his own.

Ginny was extremely surprised and responded before her brain could scream how wrong this was. It turned out Malfoy's tongue was good for something other than insults. He explored her mouth almost hungrily, reaching every corner. She tasted so sweet… Ginny groaned. She forgot how good it felt to be kissed properly. Ever since having broken up with Seamus Finnigan last April, Ginny had stayed out of the game. Seamus had been good, better than Dean Thomas who just shoved his tongue down her throat, but was nothing compared to Draco. She fell back on the desk his moving up her sides toward her chest. Just as things were about to get interesting, an outraged voice yelled "Lumos!"

The blinding light brought then back to reality. Draco jumped away from Ginny as fast as possible in utter shock. He had just… with Ginny and…. Enjoyed it? Only his Malfoy training kept him from trembling. He put on his cool composure and turned to face a very angry Snape.

* * *

A/N: I know! A killer spot to leave off! Its better than the original ending to say the least… well, there I go babbling again. Right! So, this is even longer than my last chapter! Yey! I've decided to work my way from short to obscenely long chapters by making each one a page longer than the last. The question is of course, how long will this resolution last? Anways, thank you to my loyal READER (notice the lack of "s"s) You guys can do better than that! I want at least two reviews this time…. So the main point I wanted to make was REVIEW! Nothing makes me happier than going online to find new reviews! Its simply heart warming. Enough of my senseless babble. Go! 

Moonglow


	5. In Which Many People Make Unpleasant Dis...

A/N: Oh my goodness, just when you thought I had completely forgotten about my story, I come out with another chapter! This one is dedicated to Kerichi for helping me get my butt in gear…

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, The story would be MUCH less about him and MUCH more about Draco (with Ginny of course…)

* * *

**Chapter Five: In Which Many People Make Unpleasant Discoveries**

Pansy sat down at the Slytherin table, completely unaware of her surroundings. Normally, she would have been telling off those first year brats for throwing food at each other ("It brings disgrace on the Slytherin House when you all act so immaturely. We have a reputation to uphold and having a food fight is something Muggle children would do. How do you expect to put the Gryffindors in their place if you act like a bunch of Muggle-lovers? Etc") but the sight of HIM in the hallway had sent her to another dimension. He looked so strikingly handsome with his broad shoulder, well hidden but solid muscles, full manly lips, and eyes like the ocean after a storm. Pansy chuckled at the cliché, even though it fit him well. What she would give to be able to run her hands through his soft hair, brush away that lock that always seemed to hang in his face… Gods she loved him. She looked up and noticed Draco walking toward her. Flashing him a big grin, she moved her books aside to make room for him to sit as he threw his to the ground, face flushed with anger.

Pansy glanced up to see an angry Weaslette storming to her seat as well. "Interesting…" she thought to herself. Leaning her head on his shoulder, as any girl in love with her boyfriend would do, she whispered in Draco's ear, "Bad run in with the Weaslette, Drake?"

He turned, fixing his furious glare on her. "The Weaslette? No. I was just about to have my way with her when Snape walked in and caught us- according to him- in a compromising position. Bloody bastard gave us three days detention- separately, thank God. What the bloody hell us his problem? My father is a better Death Eater than he'll ever be! I'M going to be a better Death Eater than he'll ever be! How dare he anger me? Father _will_ hear of this and he will _not_ be happy!" Draco ranted.

"Darling, Snape's given you detention before. What makes this time any different than the last?" Pansy asked, sensing she wasn't getting the full story.

"Because! What type of Slytherin head gives the same punishment to a Gryffindor AND a Slytherin? Where's the favoritism? God knows McGonagall would have bitten off my head and roasted me for supper (not that she could ever really take me). I mean, he didn't even take any extra points off from her." His excuse sounded lame, even to him, but Pansy didn't press him. He wasn't giving her the whole story and it seemed like she knew it. He couldn't, even if he had wanted to. What could he say, 'I was snogging her like mad, even though she's a Gryffindor, a Weasley, and I thoroughly despise her, when Snape barged in. But I don't touch you because I'm "too much of a gentleman" '?

* * *

Snape HAD found Ginny and Draco in what was actually an extremely compromising position. Draco's shirt was unbuttoned and half way off, his normally perfect hair with out so much as a strand out place was a complete and total mess. One of his hands was cupping her breast while the other was moving quickly up her skirt as they snogged madly on a pile of first year essays which had been neatly stacked on what was apparently Snape's desk in what was apparently Snape's study.

"What in bloody hell are you two doing!" he roared as Draco jumped off Ginny and tried to smooth his appearance. He turned to Snape, face stoic and replied "Nothing." In a tone much as one would use to in form you of the weather. Ginny possessed none of Malfoy's cool air as she straightened her skirt and blouse, face red enough to rival her hair.

"THAT DID NOT LOOK LIKE NOTHING!" A vein popped out on Snape's temple. "Do you realize that "nothing" you were doing was on MY DESK!" Ginny had watched his expressions go from surprise to anger to, after Malfoy's "innocent" act, unreasonably outraged. 'Why can't he learn to keep his mouth shut?' she fumed 'He's just getting us into more trouble!'

Snape's hands were shaking with rage. He had thought he couldn't be more shocked or angry about the impropriety of students in public areas than when he had caught two Hufflepuffs in a rather steamy situation just outside Dumbledore's office not two days ago, but this took the cake. They were on his bloody desk for Slytherin's sake! And Mr. Malfoy had had the gall to act as if nothing had happened and expected to get away with it!

"Sir," Malfoy's calm voice interrupted his thought of rage. "I thought that your office was attached to the Potions room,"

"It is, Mr. Malfoy. This is my study. Hence all the books. Now explain yourselves!"

Ginny piped up first. "I was walking down the hall, on my way to lunch, doing nothing other than minding my own business when Malfoy grabbed me and-"

"I did not grab you wench!" Malfoy interrupted.

"What are you from, the fifteenth century?" she shot back. "Anyway, he pulled me into the room, which was dark and I had no idea was yours, and he starts harassing me. Then next thing I know, he's forcing himself on me!"

"Why you-" Malfoy's oncoming tirade was quelled by a Snape so angry, that if he were a cartoon, one would see smoke pouring out of his ears.

"I do not want to hear another word. From EITHER of you!" He put a silencing spell on Malfoy and Ginny before either could argue back. "I can't come up with a proper punishment with all this noise. Hmm. Two weeks with Mr. Filch ought to set you straight Mr. Malfoy. You need to learn some respect for authority figures. Scrubbing the floor with a Muggle tooth-cleaner or what ever inane idea Mr. Filch manages to produces should be adequate." He then turned to Ginny. "As for you Ms. Weasley, you can spend the same amount of time under my supervision. Both of you will report to your respective teachers tonight after you have finished dinner. On top of this, fifty points will be deducted from your respective houses." Both students were mouthing away, outraged. Snape was quite glad he couldn't hear them. "Now go to lunch. I expect you can behave yourselves for the five minutes it takes to walk there, or do I need to chaperone you?" He said, raising an eyebrow. Both shook their heads no. "Good." Draco pointed to his throat. "It will wear off in a few minutes or so. Hopefully you two will be far enough away that I won't be able to hear your whining and shouting. Get out." Snape shoved them out the door and slammed it behind them.

* * *

"Can you believe him? I mean the gall!" Ginny ranted. She stabbed her egg vehemently, then, feeling it relieve a good deal of stress, proceeded to continue stabbing until her egg looked more scrambled than hard boiled. Colin blinked, trying hard not to betray the fact he had not been listening to a word she just said. However, from the length of which she ranted and they way she was violently massacring her egg; it was easy to deduce she had been talking about Malfoy.

"Yeah, uh, that Malfoy's a real scum bag." He commiserated, falling back on his safety line. She looked up from her eggs for a short moment to glare at him before returning to her task.

"I was talking about SNAPE. How dare he walk in and assume I was doing something dirty with Malfoy when he was in fact attacking me! And to only listen to that arsehole's side of the story? Don't you see just a _little bit_ of house- bias there? It's not fair!" Colin's cheeks were slightly colored when Ginny decided to back off.

"Err, that's what I meant. I'm just so used to bad-mouthing Malfoy, it just slipped out. I listening to every word you said."

Ginny felt slightly bad about going off on Colin. This feeling was compounded by the guilt her "white lies" had stirred up and Ginny suddenly felt a strong urge to come clean. Before she could work up the courage, she decided to change the subject.

In the middle of what she thought to be an entertaining tale about Melanie's crystal ball disaster in Divinations today (She had accidentally conjured an image of the headmaster relieving himself. He had felt her present and given a cheerful smile and a wink. The poor girl wouldn't live it down for weeks and would be stuck with that disturbing image the rest of her life.) Ginny again noticed Colin's attention had drifted. She followed his gaze to the Hufflepuff table where Gilda Hable was talking in an animated fashion to a friend about a subject of little consequence. Her voice trailed off as she realized 'This must be her, Colin's mystery woman… But why keep their relationship a secret?' Ginny was so caught in her revelations that she didn't notice the girl Colin was actually staring at two tables away was beaming back at him, partially hidden from Ginny's view by Gilda's head.

At that moment Colin looked up at Ginny and followed her gaze, flushing. "Uh…" Colin began, not quite knowing what to say. Ginny turned her stare to Colin.

"Gilda Hable? SHE'S your mystery woman? Why keep it silent? I mean half the guys at Hogwarts are after her. I mean, just last week she hexed a bunch of Ravenclaw seventh year for supposedly stalking her. " Colin's relief over Ginny having hose the wrong person quickly evaporated as Ginny continued. "Well, I guess she just didn't want everyone to find out she ended up falling up with some Gryffindor sixth year nobody. I mean, you're adorable, but let's face it; you're not the most popular kid in Gryffindor let alone Hogwarts. Ooh, but now that I know, we should all hang out sometimes. How about I come with you tonight to meet her? You should probably owl her and tell I know and that I promise not to tell any one so I'm ok to hang out with. Then maybe we'll all become really good friends like Ron, Harry, and Hermoine and-"

"Woah!" Colin interrupted. Being that he wasn't actually SEEING Gilda, this was turning into something that would become a bigger fiasco than Ginny finding out the truth. He pondered telling her that he had lied, that he was NOT going out with Gilda, but couldn't bring himself to consciously violate his promise to his lover when he could possibly find a way to cover everything up.

"What?" Ginny asked, a little put out.

"Well… since me and Gilda are keeping this a secret, shouldn't it be up to us whether or not you're allowed to come with us?" Colin gained back some of his confidence. "How would you like it if I demanded that I be allowed to barge in on your secret relationship with, say, Malfoy-"

Ginny slapped him upside the head and used words this author dare not state here.

"Alright, fine. Cedric Diggory."

"That's more like it!" Ginny crossed her arms and nodded. "I get the point. Listen. I would still like to meet her and make sure she's good for you."

"Ginny, I can judge people pretty well, and she's an honest, good person."

"Colin, remember when I thought Dean Thomas was the best thing that ever happened to me and you insisted on checking him out and you made me realize I was in an abusive relationship?" Colin tried to butt in but Ginny kept going. "Besides, Isabelle Godfrey, need I say more?" She raised her eyebrow in a way that was very similar to Colin, but he couldn't quite place who it was that did it.

"Listen Gin, those are all good points. Let me talk to her about it, at least give her some warning before you tear her apart like a ravenous beast."

Where most sensible girls would be offended, Ginny cracked a huge smile. "A ravenous beast? Really? I thought I could be intimidating, but I didn't know I'd made it to the ravenous beast stature… Anyway, what you ask sounds sensible. Wednesday evening, I'll tag along, ready or not. That gives you two nights to prepare her. And no funny business!"

Colin gave a half hearted attempt at a smile. Two days. Two days to come up with dirt and black mail Gilda Hable, one the prettiest, most popular, smart, and clean cut students in the school. He had to get cracking.

* * *

The Slytherins slowly filed out of the Great Hall, Draco, Blaise, and Pansy sauntering out last. "Oh bollocks! Mate, could you run back to my rooms and get my powdered asphodel root and unicorn droppings? Snape will kill me if I forget them again!" Blaise asked Draco, giving him their secret signal for "leave me alone with this girl". Draco was quite puzzled as to why Blaise would want to be alone with Pansy of all people. Normally, he'd say it was just Blaise's poor taste, but Pansy WAS Draco's fiancé. There was nothing for him there. He decided to go along with whatever it was Blaise was doing.

"Sure, but I'll be taking some of your Playwizards."

Pansy made a face and Blaise responded "Fine, just don't get them dirty like you did the last batch."

"Ugggh boys!" Pansy made a face

Draco sauntered in the directions of the Slytherin dorms. As soon as he was out of sight, Blaise pulled Pansy behind the rather rotund, snoring statue of Gilbert the Grey (who was, ironically, carved in red stone) "Finally, some alone time! I thought he would never leave us alone." Blaise whispered to Pansy, as to not wake the sleeping statue.

"Blaise!" Pansy said taken aback with shock. "You know I'm engaged to Draco! How improper and rude!"

"Since when are _you_ proper?" Blaise drawled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Pansy was rather indignant.

"How did your studying go last night?" Blaise inquired.

His innocent question made Pansy wary. "It was going fine until about halfway through the chapter 9 of A Guide to the Battle of Baden Hill I fell asleep, face flat in my book. It took three cleaning spells to get the ink off my face this morning! You wouldn't believe how much those books smears even though they're so old. It looks like I'll be failing another History of Magic exam, though." She tried to keep her tone light.

"Really? That's funny, because I couldn't help noticing it sitting on your bed the entire time you were gone. And don't tell me you took another copy because when you walked into the Common Room at three o'clock this morning, there was no trace of ink on your face. So where were you REALLY this morning, Pansy?" Blaise couldn't conceal the anger in his voice.

Pansy refused to show that Blaise was starting to frighten her. She wouldn't let him bully her into telling. "You snuck up into my dorms? And what did you do, wait up for me? Cause I didn't see you. You are not my keeper. I don't have to report every move I make to you."

Blaise grabbed her arms. "Need I remind you that you are engaged to Draco, much, in fact, against his will? He has not so much as looked at another girl since the agreement was reached. Gods know he'd rather be trying to the woman he will love the rest of his life, but you demanded that mommy and daddy get Draco to be your husband. And after all his sacrifices, you turn around and sneak out with another guy. You are disgusting." He pushed her away much like one would push away a heap of trash, as quickly as possible.

Pansy was crying full out by now and no longer cared whether or not Blaise was getting satisfaction out of this. "I-I- didn't want to hurt him. I never meant that he should- I thought that- I thought that he would rather be forced to marry me than that _witch_ Lucius was making arrangements with. The man will do anything for money. Even sell his own son!"

Blaise gaped, shocked. Draco's predicament was getting more complicated by the moment. "So you had your parents force Lucius to make Draco propose in order to save him from marrying- who?"

"Darla Wellington," Pansy spat the name as if it were the most disgusting thing she could imagine. Blaise's eyes went wide. Darla was known to be the worst wizards in the world. Darla had been around for almost a century now, taking youth potions to keep her looking like she was twenty five. She had had twice as many husbands. All had been found mutilated and dead in various ditches, scattered throughout England with in two months of their marriage. It was said she stole their life force to make her potions. Of course, every time a body turned up, people knew she was behind it. But because of the prestige of her family and the astounding amount of wealth she possessed (richest wizard in the world- no doubt why Lucius was talking to her at all in the first place), the police had put the cases away as "unsolved".

"Wow… That _is_ low, even for Lucius…" Blaise responded, pondering what he would do with Malfoy. "Why didn't you ever tell him about this?"

"I couldn't find a time. I mean, when IS a good time to tell someone that their father was trying to arrange a marriage for them with Darla Wellington?"

"Any time would have been good. Draco's been pulling out his hair over this! Almost literally." Blaise looked thoughtful. "That still doesn't answer the second half of my question. Who was the guy?"

"Listen, I think I should be the one to tell Draco everything- including 'the guy'" Pansy forestalled any further attempt by Blaise to find out who the guy was. Hopefully he hadn't told Draco yet about her midnight adventures and could buy a few more weeks before either of t hem figured out that Pansy had fallen in love and who he was. Then the shit would really hit the fan.

"Fine." Blaise acquiesced. They came out from behind the statue and hurried to Potions.

* * *

'I wonder what Blaise could have wanted with Pansy…' Draco was still stuck on this question when he arrived to Potions, just ahead of a paler-than-normal Blaise and a tear stained Pansy. This was very intriguing. What on earth had Blaise been up to?

"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Zabini, and Mrs. Parkinson, so good of you to decide to attend my class this afternoon. May I remind you that this is mandatory class and you are expected to be on time!" He turned back to the chalkboard where he was posting the ingredients for today's potion. They all breathed sighs of relief at not having points deducted as they took their seats, immune to the scathing stares from Gryffindors.

'Another perfect potion,' thought Malfoy, patting himself on the back. 'I am too good for this class. When will Snape start making it challenging?'

Malfoy's cheery mood was abruptly ended when Snape called him over to his desk.

"Mr. Malfoy, there has been a change of plans. You will be serving detention with me tonight as Mr. Filch has- fallen ill" Filch had in fact been a victim of Fred and George Weasley's Blue gumdrops. These turned the eater blue and made them rather gum drop shaped- something Filch had missed entirely when he opened the sweet made especially for him by his "favorite students".

Malfoy began to protest, but Snape held up his hand. "Go before you get yourself in to more trouble. Nodding sullenly, Draco returned to his seat, to brood the rest of the class.

* * *

A/N: Woohoo! No cliffie this time! I am soo sorry this one took so long. Between my evil teachers, mad AP studying and being sick like every other week, I just could seem to get my act together. Please forgive me! Now that the year is winding up, hopefully I will be able to update quicker . Thanks to:

**Kerichi:** A glowing review (literally, might I say), wow! And no, the obscenely long chapters are in NO way a dig. Where would I be if I didn't have the long chapters of yours to read? ;) You have, however, quelled any desire me (or Draco) has to go to Guam. I'm not a big snake fan, and as much as he acts like one, I don't think I can picture Malfoy wanting to live among them (or the dirt). Can't wait to read your next chapter…

**Soulseekersfindpeace:** I hope Snape's reaction lived up to your expectations. I have to say, writing Snape is new to me, and hard (I guess because I didn't start liking him until a few months ago…) I'm sorry for the long wait!

**MEL:** I'm sorry to leave you hanging that way, and I'm glad my story was good enough to make you review. I hope this chapter is as awesome…

**Dranius:** wipes brow in relief I was actually starting to get worried that Ginny was getting a little OoC. Thanks for the reassurance. And you gotta love Draco…

**Antonia:** Yeah, Malfoy is actually much more violent than I had originally planned him. He just doesn't like being bested, especially not by a Weasley. I guess he ust loses track of him self. He has a short temper and Ginny likes to provoke him. With no one else to see him sink to new depths, why not? He is after all ruthless, just like Lucius. There has gotta be a correlation to picking on 13 year olds when your like 50 and beating up a girl, a rival none the less. Also, as a Death Eater to be, he has to have a violent streak buried some where…

**Dancer of the Opera:** I hope this chapter wasn't boring. And I promise- the next chapter will be up much sooner.

Well this is the part where I ask you to review. Please do so. It puts a smile on my face. I enjoy criticism. It makes me think about my characters etc. and is most refreshing. As long as your not down right nasty about it, its cool. More secrets to be revealed next chapter. Stay tuned!

Moonglow


	6. Draco's Bad Day

A/N: I DID IT! I UPDATED! Thanks to Kerichi, as always…

Disclaimer: If they were mine, I could go to which ever college I wanted. Heck, I wouldn't even HAVE to go to college!

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**Chapter 6: Draco's Very, Extremely, in Every Way Possible Bad Day**

Although most people would never believe it, Draco Malfoy was a packrat. He wasn't messy per se, so much as loathe to throw things out. Blaise was having a trouble sifting through it no matter what its name. He was nearly to the bottom when Draco busted through the door.

"Great! Now I'm late! Whatever it is can surely wait another hour or two. Its waited this long, hasn't it?" he shouted behind him, exasperated.

"But Draco-" Pansy's plea was cut off as he slammed the door shut.

"Bloody women!" Draco fumed

"You'd better stop scowling like that or you'll get wrinkles mate," said a more jovial Blaise. The frown on Draco's face lessened in severity.

"Pansy's been pestering me to talk with her since dinner. She can't just out and tell me because we have to go some place 'private'!" Draco made dramatic air quotes. "Besides, alone time with Pansy could be dangerous- to my health anyways. Look at this! My hair's coming out! If I marry her, something really bad is bound to happen, like going grey early!"

"Vain as ever I see," Blaise went back to sifting through the trunk.

Draco was silent moment as he walked over to sit on his bed. "Its all some of us have left," he replied quietly.

Blaise broke the awkward silence. "Listen, give her a chance. You might actually want to hear what she has to say." Draco arched a quizzical brow and glanced at his watch.

"Bollocks! I'm late for detention!" Draco threw on his bad robes (which were considerably nicer than most students' good robes) that had been waiting on a hanger for him. "What are you looking for in my trunk, anyway?"

"The Playwizards you stole from me last week," Blaise's excuse went unchecked as Draco walked briskly toward the door.

"Fine, but make sure you put everything back exactly where you found it or I'll hex you into next Tuesday." Blaise rolled his eyes as Draco quickly scanned the area for Pansy and left.

* * *

Ginny was sitting on the floor, bent over her hands as she tried to determine which of these white speckled things were the liverwort mushrooms and which were spotted toadstools. She could have sworn they were just two different names for the same mushroom, but Snape had quickly corrected her, mixing in a few snide comments about her mental capacity. Even now, she wasn't sure which pile of sorted mushrooms was which or if they had been properly sorted at all.

The heavy dungeon door slammed shut with a heavy thud, startling Ginny. Her head snapped up and lips curled in disgust to see Draco Malfoy drop his books on the desk behind hers and continue towards Snape's desk. Deciding he wasn't even worth her sneer, Ginny turned back to her work.

Draco paused as he got closer to Ginny, watching her studiously sort through the large pile of mushrooms. A strand of her luscious red hair fell in her face. Draco fought the compulsory urge to push it back. He managed to catch his hand before he did any damage and sat down next to her. He picked up some mushrooms from the pile in front of him and began to sort. He was halfway through before he felt Ginny's gaze burning into the back of his skull.

"What?" he snapped.

"I already sorted those At least do something useful and take from the main pile," Ginny said through clenched teeth.

"This is what you call sorted? I thought you would have had more practice from doing- I don't know, laundry or sift through garbage for food or something,"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied primly, ignoring his digs.

Draco heaved an impatient sigh and rolled his eyes. "You see how there are only five dots on the mushroom head? These are liverwort, The spotted toadstools are the ones with this light dusting of dots, like your freckles," Draco looked up, relieved to see Ginny hadn't heard him slip up.

"Can I see?" she asked, curious. Her hand brushed his as she took them from his palm. An electric shock shot up his spine.

'It all makes sense now!' She thought as she reached for the mushrooms. Snape's explanation had short and curt. One had spots and the other had more spots. Come to think of it, the liverwort's spots were bigger than that of the spotted mushroom. 'Imagine' she snorted. 'Malfoy, making sense!' She took them from his hand and examined them . When she looked up, she noticed Draco's face had flushed. She quickly handed the mushrooms back and mutter "Sorry," before turning back to work. Just as she had picked u her next batch of mushrooms, Snape stormed into the room, ever-billowing robes giving him his usual intimidating presence.

"Ah, Draco, you've decided to join us." He bent over, examining Ginny's handy work. "You call this sorted Ms. Weasley? Pathetic! I have no idea how you've kept from blowing yourself up, let alone manage to become the top in your class, when you can't even tell the difference between spotted toadstools and liverwort mushrooms!" Snape put a hand up to his temple. "Mr. Malfoy, I trust you can fix this abominable mess while I give Ms. Weasley a task she should be able to handle," Malfoy could only muster a half amused smirk as Snape led Ginny to a heaping pile of cauldrons.

* * *

As he continued to sort, Draco's mind began to wander. Things had definitely been strange lately. Blaise had reached a whole new level of strange these past few days, more so than Draco had originally realized, now that he looked back on it.

First was the waiting up that night Draco had tried to sneak into the infirmary. Blaise obviously hadn't been waiting up for him, as he had remained in his seat when Draco went to bed. That meant some one had come in after he had, some one Blaise apparently desperately needed to talk to. Draco fast forwarded to the scene in the dorm room just twenty minutes ago. Why WAS Blaise in his trunk? Draco knew he had returned all the magazines he had taken last week and Blaise had just lent him the new one today. He couldn't be looking for that one. Also, Blaise knew the place to look for his play wizards was under Draco's mattress, not in his trunk. So what was Blaise up to? And who was helping him?

Pansy. Draco had almost forgotten that they had walked in late together to potions. Was she the one Blaise was plotting with? Then why had she been crying? And it still didn't explain why Blaise was in his trunk. What were they up to?

Thoughts of the possible conspiracy plots kept Draco so busy, he didn't even notice the four hours of detention fly by. Snape was just finishing locking everything up when Draco finally withdrew from his thoughts. Ginny startled him as she walked by. He completely forgot that she was there serving detention to. He absent mindedly followed, but suddenly found the floor rising to meet him as he tripped over a forgotten pile of mushrooms.

Draco's annoyance grew when he heard a tinkering laugh from over head. "Gee, Draco, what happened? Did you trip over your enormous ego? I'll bet that happens often," she gibed.

Draco quickly got to his feet and dusted himself off. He was not amused to find she was still laughing at him when he finished. "How funny could that have been? You think you'd be used to it, what with your face being acquainted with every inch of the floor and walls. The way you go banging about its amazing you have any mental function left," he attempted to taunt back. Ginny stopped laughing long enough to stick out her tongue. "Then again maybe you don't." He turned to walk away, slightly stumbling on a renegade mushroom. Ginny's laughter doubled.

Malfoy whirled around. "Oh will you shut it already?"

Ginny wiped her eyes. "Gods, I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. You are a riot!"

Malfoy hated when people laughed at him. He hated it even more when they shoved it in his face. "I said shut your mouth Weaslette! Are you retarded? Do you need me to spell it out for you?

"Don't tell me when I can and can't talk!" Ginny said, incredulously.

"Shut-Up" Malfoy clenched his fists, getting angrier by each second she stood there staring haughtily at him.

"Make me!" Ginny took a step closer, fists clenched as well.

"Fine!" And that's when he kissed her again. Draco wasn't sure how he was suddenly close enough to her to suddenly be able to reach down to her lips, or what came over him to make him do such a thing in the first place. All he knew was that he was glad she was no longer talking.

He stopped thinking all together when she shoved him up against the wall and really began snogging back in earnest.

Ginny wasn't quite sure what happened either, just that this was the way she liked Draco best- when he was snogging her. She couldn't say it felt right, but she could certainly say it felt good. And she wanted more.

Her hands grew a mind of their own and began untucking his shirt as she grinded her body into his. From the looks of things, Draco was enjoying it as much as she was as he had already half unbuttoned her shirt.

"What is it with you two! You're worse than a pair of Hufflepuff first years- at each others throats one minute and acting like a pair of mating kneazles the next! In my presence! AGAIN!" Snape had turned a shade of white that looked as if he were glowing with rage. Ginny couldn't believe this had happened. For the second time that day none the less!

Draco was of a similar mindset. This girl was trouble. Then again, weren't all Weasleys? But for some reason he couldn't bring himself to be quite as mad at her as he knew he should be. Granted, he wanted to tear her limb from limb, yet he found he didn't want to draw it out into the normal, long term torture he usually preferred. He needed to get away from Ginny Weasley and he needed to do it now.

After upping their detention another month and a half, Snape let Draco and Ginny return to their dorms before he did something stupid. Like strangle them with their own robes.

* * *

When Draco returned to the common room, he had no desire to deal with Pansy. She, however had other ideas on this matter. "What the…?" Draco sputtered as he walked through the portrait hole to find one arm clapped in a handcuff.

"We need to talk, Draco. Now." Pansy said. "I'm tired of waiting for you to 'feel like it'." Draco, not in much of a position to argue (as Pansy had the key) nodded his assent and followed her back out of the common room to what looked like a potions room that was last in use some time during the middle ages.

"Lumos!" Pansy's wand shone brightly. She stood there for a moment, opening her mouth a few times to talk, but quickly shutting it again.

After a few moments, Draco was thoroughly annoyed. He'd had a long, trying day and wanted nothing more than to slip between those soft thick covers he'd ordered the elves to warm and sleep it off, something that he seemed to be needing way too often of late. He told Pansy so, and waited impatiently for her response.

"I'm sorry Draco, I'm just not sure how to approach this…"

"How about just saying it? Honestly you cow, you really ARE good for nothing! How in hell can I possibly spend my life married to such a dithering idiot! I can't-"

"Shut your mouth already Malfoy, and let the girl speak," Blaise said, stepping into the circle of light.

"What is this, a bloody intervention? Am I going to admit that I'm an enormous asshole, and then we can all cry together and talk about how to cope with my issues? Seriously-" Blaise clapped his hand over Draco's mouth. Draco gave him the nastiest look he could in his demeaned position and conceded. Blaise withdrew his hand.

"Just tell him, Pansy," Blaise ordered.

Pansy took a deep breath. "The reason that I had your father force you to marry me was because he had been attempting to set up some sort of arrangement with Darla Wellington."

Draco looked confused. "It was probably just to get some money. Your parents aren't doling out as much as they used to- not that I blame them. What's got to do with me?"

"Don't be a moron Draco. You KNOW what Darla would want in return," Blaise said softly. The full gravity of the situation hit Draco like a sledgehammer. He crumpled to the floor and buried his head in his hands. "I know, Draco, I never thought he'd go that far either."

"I overheard them at mum's birthday ball, talking in the library… Lucius had said he couldn't promise her anything until you were out of school, which obviously didn't make Darla happy- I noticed she was developing slight wrinkle on her forehead… Anyway, with graduation a year off, I knew Lucius couldn't go that long with no money flow, so I made my parents ask for a betrothal." Pansy fell silent. Draco was staring at her, an odd expression on his face. "Draco, say something. Please," she whispered.

Draco felt the words forming on his lips but didn't actually have enough energy to say anything. He sat there in complete and utter shock. He had never felt so worthless in his entire life. 'Actually, I've never been worth so much!' Draco let out a bitter bark at the irony of the situation. He looked up at Pansy. "That saddest part is, I don't doubt it." Laughter began bubbling up in his stomach, and soon his was in hysterics, rolling over the floor. Pansy undid her handcuff and stepped back, a bit frightened by his mirthless outbreak.

"Why don't you go back, Pans, and I'll take it from here," Blaise said. With a curt nod, she left the room. Blaise settled on the floor and prepared himself for a long night.

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A/N: You have no idea how long this has been hanging around already- since early September! Senioritis is really a killer, let me tell you something. I hope it was worth the wait…I've already started on the next chapter, and the more reviews I get on this one, the faster the update will come… HINT HINT!

**Kerichi-** I SWEAR Colin's not gay! Would this face—er computer screen lie? Don't worry all shall be revealed, in time though, for if I have no secrets, how will I keep you coming back for more?

**Embellished-** Yey for updates! I'm sorry this is so long in coming!

**Rupertlvr-** Ditto Embellished. Nice screenname by the way 

**Xani-** I love it when that happens, you forget about a fanfiction, then you re-find it and it has like twenty updates, lol. I believe I may have been a little short on the banter. More next time, I promise…

**Dancer of the Opera-** I'm glad to see you checked! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! P.S.- I love that musical… I just saw it a month ago and I died…


	7. Confusion, Anger, and Other Such Quandar

Disclaimer: If I owned these characters, I wouldn't be applying for all these scholarships. Wouldn't that be nice…sigh

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**Chapter 7: Confusion, Anger, and Other such Quandaries **

"Did you tell him?"

"Yes…"

"How'd he take it?"

"How would you take that news?"

"That bad, huh? Did you tell him about us?"

"I didn't think he could take it. He was in hysterics as it was. It would have put him over the edge."

"I don't want you to get in trouble, but soon we'll have bigger problems on our hands."

"Its not me I'm worried about- its you. He's unstable. I don't know how he'll react. His reputation is not unfounded you know…"

"I don't doubt it, but I'm in a tight spot here. If you don't tell him soon, things will be _much_ worse."

"What about that blackmailing scheme you had?"

"The girl is truly spotless. I'm going to have to come clean."

"Is there any way to buy some more time"

"I suppose my girlfriend could 'get sick', but Friday is the latest I can hold off."

"Fine. That will be enough."

Silence.

"Aren't you tired of sneaking around like this?"

"You have no idea!"

" I just can't wait for this to be over…"

He brushed away the tear falling down Pansy's cheek. She wrapped her arms around him, as if clinging on for dear life.

* * *

When Draco finally finished laughing, he collapsed on the floor next to Blaise. Blaise basked in the silence for a moment before finally speaking.

"Still mad?"

"Still mad? I don't think I've ever been more pissed off in my life!" Draco leaned his head back against the wall. "Pansy could have told me sooner. I've been killing myself to be a good fiancé and she couldn't care less about me. I've tortured myself for nothing! Nothing!" He let out a weary chuckle.

"She does care for you, just… on a different level than she implied. She did basically save your life. Besides, there are worse people to be engaged to…" Blaise defended.

"Yeah? Name one." Draco challenged.

"Well, the Weaslette for one," Blaise chuckled. Draco forced a smile. The youngest Weasley was a whole other can of worms he couldn't stand to open at the moment. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I suppose I'll have to have it out with my father. It will be a waste of a Hogsmeade day, but this really does take precedence. I have to set him in his place before he gets me killed."

"I pity the bastard. He's really gonna get it…" said Blaise.

The elder Malfoy had once been a force to be reckoned with, bringing his son up to be just like him- strong and able to force his opinion on others. Lucius had thought him self infallible, unbeatable (excepting the Dark Lord of course). He had made the Ministry of Magic play the fool on more occasions than they new of. As anyone who stands unrivalled, Lucius got bored. Voldemort had Dumbledore, his son had Harry Potter, and the rest of his friends had the ministry officials, yet Lucius had no one thwarting him and his dealings, no one to keep things interesting. When he started gambling, it more than the high from having twice the galleons you started with weighing your pockets down, it was the thrill of losing. And with his massive bank accounts backing him, he was welcomed to the most exclusive clubs from London to Beijing. He started to lose on purpose every now and again just for the chills that ran down his spine. Eventually, he began losing so often, he forgot how to win.

Thus over the months, his bank accounts dwindled, as did his good name. Soon it wasn't just the exclusive clubs kicking him out, but the normal ones as well. If it wasn't for his good breeding, Lucius would have turned to the Muggle casinos, but his pride just wouldn't let him. He soon discovered having a foe was not all it was cracked up to be. When his creditors started sending out hit wizards, what ever cockiness the Death Eater had once possessed was crushed. The only thing that kept him going was the promise of retribution once the Dark Lord rose to power again. Thus he let himself fall to waste, his son picking up the slack as he rest on his over stuffed leather armchair in his study.

The first time Draco won an argument, it was harder to tell who was more shocked- Lucius, laying on the floor, blood streaming past his brow, or Draco standing over him preparing for another blow with Lucius' own cane. They had tried their best to steer clear of each other after that. Lucius did not want to be on the receiving end of the infamous Malfoy temper, and Draco could never quite get past his inherent fear of his father, or the absurdity that Lucius was no longer what he used to be.

Draco turned his head lazily to look at Blaise for the first time during their entire discussion. "Can I go to sleep now?"

"What- scrubbing cauldron wear little Drakie out?" Blaise mocked.

"It was sorting toadstools and shut up." Draco snapped. Blaise got up and helped him to his feet.

"Well that doesn't sound demanding. I say the Weaslette showed you a good time and wore you out…" Blaise grinned devilishly and dashed from the room.

"You arse!" Draco took off after him, screaming obscenities all the way back to the common room.

* * *

Ginny hadn't been on such a rampage since she was five. This time, however, she wasn't mad at Charlie for stealing her Guinevere doll again, she was mad at herself. What was she bloody thinking kissing that Mal-ferret? In front of Snape no less? She was a stupid horrible person. She used to believe just being in the same room as him was enough to give her bad karma. Now she was snogging him? And what's worse, enjoying it! If Ron know, he'd be having kittens. Big, ferocious kittens with pointy teeth and sharp claws.

Had this been one of Ginny's friends, Ginny would have stopped speaking to her or at least given her a good talking to. However, it was impossible to talk to herself and even so, her brain wasn't listening.

She stormed through the hallways, punching walls with bloody knuckles until she got to the Room of Requirement. After pacing in front of the empty walls three times, she threw the door open and was delighted to find a room full of vases and jars for her to smash. With out much ado, the sound of breaking glass echoed through the room.

* * *

Draco hadn't slept so deeply since he had pilfered one of Mother's Sleep Like a Corpse potions. He had been having trouble getting to sleep while on Christmas break, and had noticed the grayish coffin shaped bottle during his usual raid for hair tonics. It had caused quite a commotion in the Malfoy household when Narcissa attempted to wake Draco for breakfast and he was cold as stone. Not noticing the emptied coffin-bottle on the floor, she proceeded to call the medics, who were carrying Draco from the house in a body bag when he awoke. Needless to say the medic levitating him was more than a little disconcerted to see the bag begin to twitch and wriggle as screams eschewed forth. In fact, that was the last day Albert White had any colored hair left on his head as the scare shocked it all out until his formerly brown locks were the shade of his name. Feeling infinitely refreshed, Draco was massively confused as to why he was in a body bag to begin with when all he was doing was getting a good night's sleep. Narcissa was more than happy to explain it to him between blows from the cane she kept for occasions such as these and kisses of relief. Soon after, all the Sleep Like a Corpse potions were pulled from shelves.

Draco awoke at six in the morning, feeling thoroughly rejuvenated and ready to start a new day. Until, that is, the previous night's events came flooding back to him. He lay in his bed, wondering what to do about his father. He didn't plan on doing something that would land him in Azkaban- the old fool wasn't worth it- but he needed to do some thing that would ensure his father never dared try something like this again.

A crash in the common room derailed his train of thought. 'Who could be up this early?' He wondered. Slytherins were notorious for being late to everything, mainly due to their fondness for sleeping late. It was odd that anyone would be up at this hour. Draco slipped out or his bed and crept down the stairs.

He found Pansy sitting of one of the leather sofas centered in the Slytherin common room, nursing her foot with he shoes thrown carelessly on the ground beside her. "Pansy, you're up early," he commented, walking to her.

"So are you." She snapped. He looked her up and down. Her clothes were the same as what she had worn during their confrontation last night, now looking more rumpled, and there were dark circles under her eyes.

"Out all night I see… late night studying perhaps?" He inquired.

"Something like that," Pansy stifled a yawn. "Listen, I'm exhausted. I'm going to go try and catch a few winks before classes start." She got up and headed toward the stair case.

"Alright. Oh and Pansy, nice cologne," Draco said in the most innocent voice he could manage. Pansy froze on the stairs.

"Thanks." She replied in almost the same tone, then proceeded up the stairs. Now this is interesting, Draco thought to himself. Pansy snuck out last night to be with another man… and only moments after breaking off our betrothal… very interesting…

With thoughts only on who Pansy's mystery man could be, Draco headed to breakfast.

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A/N: I must say, I am very disappointed. ONE review… Just one! I kept waiting, hoping to get more, but it wasn't to be. I figured I'd better post this before I forgot about it though so here it is. A little shorter than usual, I know, but now I'll have a nice set up for a juicy chapter. So please, be cool and review. Nothing gets me typing faster than a new review or two when I log on… In the meantime, thanks Kerichi- I am sorry it took this long! I swear! The next chapter is started! I won't make you wait so long next time! 


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